System integration module for CBRNE sensors

• US 7,269,527 B1
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Issued: 09/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: EMR Resources, LLC
• Original Assignee: Innovative American Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Frank, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wachsman; Hal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huynh; Phuong
• Application Number:
  US11/624,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20070225946A1
• Time in Patent Office: 237 Days
• Field of Search: 702/19, 702 22- 32, 702/60, 702/64, 702/76, 702/85, 702/104, 702/108, 702/122, 702/127, 702/183, 702187-189, 340/286.01, 340/286.02, 709/245, 738/661, 376/156, 378/57, 356/72, 356/73, 356/301
• US Class Current: 702/108
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 7/00 Details of radiation-measuring instruments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/00 Modulated-carrier systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A sensor interface system and a sensor integration module support individual sensors and sensor arrays, with network connectivity and critical functions required for analog and digital sensors when deployed in field applications used for chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear and explosives (CBRNE) material identification. The sensor integration module enables efficient integration of a single sensor or for multiple sensors into an array using a modular sensor interface unit and provides individual TCP/IP addresses for each detector element, signal processing for the sensor data and communications capabilities establishing each detector and the sensor array as network elements on a distributed network.

Claims

1. A sensor interface system for interfacing with a collection of one or more sensors that can sense chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) materials, the sensor interface system comprising:

one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces for coupling with;

chemical sensors;

biological sensors;

radiation sensors;

nuclear sensors; and

explosives sensors;

an analog signal to digital data converter for converting signals from analog sensors, that are coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, to digital data;

a signal processor and central processor, coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces and with the analog signal to digital data converter, for receiving and processing signals from the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces;

a communications device, coupled to the signal processor and central processor, for coupling digital data representing signals from one or more sensors coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, to a communications network;

an individual TCP/IP address associated with each of the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, and for providing network access to digital data representing signals from each one or more sensors coupled with the each one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, respectively;

a voltage power supply module, coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, for supporting one or more sensors connected to the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, respectively, and with software controls to adjust the power for calibration of the one or more sensors;

a software control interface, coupled with the each one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces and with the signal processor and central processor, to couple software controls to the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces to adjust for calibration of sensors coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces;

a digital data collection system, communicatively coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, for collection of sensor data from the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces;

a multi-channel analyzer system, communicatively coupled with the digital data collection system, for preparing histograms of the collected sensor data;

a spectral analysis system, communicatively coupled with the multi-channel analyzer system and the digital data collection system, for receiving and analyzing the collected sensor data to detect radiation and to identify one or more targeted materials associated with the sensor data;

a first data storage means for storing data representing chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear and explosives (CBRNE) material spectra for use by the spectral analysis system, where one or more spectral images stored in the first data storage unit represent each CBRNE material the first data storage means being communicatively coupled with the spectral analysis system;

an information processing system, communicatively coupled with the spectral analysis system, for analyzing the identified one or more targeted CBRNE materials and to determine the possible materials or goods that they represent; and

a second data storage means for storing data representing a manifest relating to a container or object under examination, the second data storage means being communicatively coupled with the information processing system, the information processing system further for comparing the determined possible materials or goods with a manifest relating to a container or object under examination to determine if there are unauthorized materials or goods contained within the container, or in the object, under examination.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces are mounted on one daughter board.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces is for connecting with one or more radiation detectors of any of the types of neutron, alpha particle, or beta particle detectors.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces is for directly connecting with one or more detectors of any of the types of chemical, biological or explosives detectors.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces and the voltage power supply module are combined and integrated into a detector design to provide a network enabled sensor interface for detecting chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear or explosives materials.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one wireless or wire-line communications system to transport the digital data, via network access using TCP/IP addresses, from one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces coupled with one or more radiation sensors to the digital data collection system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces and the voltage power supply module are combined and integrated into a detector design to provide a network enabled sensor interface for detecting chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear, or explosive materials, and further comprising:

a radiological source, integrated into the network enabled sensor interface, that may be continuously or periodically exposed to a radiation detector that is coupled with the network enabled sensor interface to provide a reference signal used for calibration of the radiation detector.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces and the voltage power supply module are combined and integrated into a detector design to provide a network enabled sensor interface for detecting chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear, or explosive materials, and further comprising:

an internet communications interface coupled with the network enabled sensor interface to provide a web-detector where multiple users over the internet can connect to the network enabled sensor interface and can obtain digital data from a radiation detector that is coupled with the network enabled sensor interface.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more radiation sensors coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces are either continuously exposed or selectively exposed to a trace level of a radiological material to provide a reference signal for use in calibrating the radiation sensors.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-channel analyzer system uses the reference signal associated with the one or more radiation sensors to adjust the collected radiation data from the one or more radiation sensors to obtain proper calibration of the collected radiation data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the spectral analysis system analyzes the collected sensor data to detect and to identify one or more CBRNE materials associated with the detected sensor data by using software on a computer program product for providing instructions to an information processing system.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a network server, communicatively coupled with the signal processor and central processor, the digital data collection system, the multi-channel analyzer system, and the spectral analysis system, to enable one or more users over a network to access information from the network server relating to at least one of:

digital data representing signals from each one or more sensors, software controls to the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, collected sensor data, histograms data, and detection of radiation and identification of one or more targeted materials associated with the collected sensor data.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a TCP/IP network communications interface for network communications with the communications device via TCP/IP communication protocol.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications device provides an open communications interface to enable network communications with another networked device via any conventional network communications protocol.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein a peak detector is incorporated into at least one of the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces for the multi-channel analyzer system to identify a detected energy range from the collected sensor data.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein a peak detector is incorporated into the multi-channel analyzer system to identify a detected energy range from the collected sensor data.

17. A sensor integration module for coupling sensor data between a collection of one or more sensors that can sense chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) materials, and a sensor data analyzer system that collects and processes the sensor data to identify one or more targeted CBRNE materials associated with the sensor data, the sensor integration module comprising:

one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces for coupling with;

chemical sensors;

biological sensors;

radiation sensors;

nuclear sensors; and

explosives sensors;

an analog signal to digital data converter for converting signals from analog sensors, that are coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, to digital data;

a signal processor and central processor, coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces and with the analog signal to digital data converter, for receiving and processing signals from the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces;

a communications device, coupled to the signal processor and central processor, for coupling digital data representing signals from one or more sensors coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, to a communications network;

an individual TCP/IP address associated with each of the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, and for providing network access to digital data representing signals from each one or more sensors coupled with the each one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, respectively, and wherein a sensor data analyzer system can be communicatively coupled with the sensor integration module via the communications network to collect and analyze the digital data representing signals from the each one or more sensors via TCP/IP communications over the communications network;

a voltage power supply module, coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, for supporting one or more sensors connected to the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces, respectively, and with software controls to adjust the power for calibration of the one or more sensors; and

a software control interface, coupled with the each one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces and with the signal processor and central processor, to couple software controls to the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces to adjust for calibration of one or more sensors coupled with the one or more digital and/or analog sensor interfaces.

18. The sensor integration module of claim 17, further comprising:

an internet communications interface communicatively coupled with the communications device to provide a web-detector where multiple users over the internet can connect to the sensor integration module to obtain the digital data representing signals from the each one or more sensors for processing and analyzing the digital data by a remotely located sensor data analyzer system to remotely identify one or more targeted CBRNE materials associated with the sensor data.

19. The sensor integration module of claim 18, wherein the sensor integration module provides the digital data representing signals from the each one or more sensors that comprises information for the remotely located sensor data analyzer system to spectrally analyze identified one or more targeted CBRNE materials and to determine the possible materials or goods that they represent.